Ziner, Feenie.

Novelist, writer of children's books, and teacher of creative writing and children's literature at New School for Social Research and University of Connecticut; b. 1921.

From the description of Feenie Ziner papers, ca. 1940-1982. (University of Connecticut). WorldCat record id: 28409135

Florence "Feenie" Katz was born in Brooklyn, New York to first-generation Americans. Educated in the New York public school system Feenie continued her education in New York, attending Brooklyn College for her Bachelor's degree. She meet her future husband, Zeke Ziner, near her family's summer home in Peekskill, New York in the late 1930s, and shortly before the start of the second World War the two were married. As Zeke entered military service in late 1941 Feenie returned to school, attending Columbia University's School of Social Work where she was awarded a Master's degree in 1944.

Following the war Zeke and Feenie moved to Chicago where Zeke attended the Institute of Design, becoming successful as a commercial and fine arts artist, and Feenie began work as a psychiatric social worker. Finding that she could not continue psychiatric work Feenie soon tried her hand at writing, starting first with children's books. Her first few books were successful, eventually selling more than half a million copies of her first book alone. Prompted by the birth of triplets in 1958 the family moved to Dobbs Ferry, New York where Zeke started a promising new job, and Feenie continued to write children's books. Shortly after the move however, Feenie wrote her first novel for adults and quickly began to produce numerous others. With a new job in 1966 Zeke and the Ziner family would spend the next four years in Montreal, a move that allowed Feenie the opportunity to teach for the first time, in addition to continuing her writing career.

Moving back to Dobbs Ferry, Connecticut in 1970, Feenie used her teaching success in Montreal to begin writing book reviews for The New York Times, while also beginning a teaching position at the State University of New York in Purchase, New York . Teaching the contemporary novel at SUNY, Feenie was quickly offered a position in the English Department at the University of Connecticut . Intending it to be a temporary position, Feenie spent the next twenty years at UConn retiring in 1994. While at the university she taught courses in children's literature and mythology, while continuing to write for scholarly journals and The New York Times, in addition to her own novels. Feenie died on Dec. 13, 2012.

From the guide to the Feenie Ziner Papers, 1933-1988, (Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries)